


Water Fight

by Luciferine



Series: Straight on 'Til Morning Interludes [5]
Category: The Last of Us
Genre: Compliant Only to the First Game, F/M, Fluff, Gen, Slice of Life, Written Prior to Sequel Release, ellie is a menace, ellie/joel if you squint, joel even moreso, what it says on the tin basically
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-15
Updated: 2015-12-15
Packaged: 2018-05-06 23:31:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,424
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5434901
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Luciferine/pseuds/Luciferine
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>On a hot day in Jackson, Ellie ropes Joel into helping her with chores. Not much work gets done. Written for an anonymous prompt on Tumblr.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Water Fight

**Author's Note:**

> AN: For the Anon on my Tumblr, who wanted a water fight. This has been half-finished for ages and today I just needed more Joel and Ellie fluff in the world. And some family fluff too, because Tommy and Maria are great.

It  _could_  have been an accident. It wasn't, not by any stretch of the imagination, but it could've been. And it's not her fault, not really. It's too hot and disgusting to be doing anything productive, and how the  _hell_  was she supposed to know Joel wasn't alone? She just wanted to catch him off guard, for  _once_.

"Sorry," Ellie says sheepishly, and whether Maria buys it or not, she lets her off the hook with an exasperated wave, sighing good-naturedly and taking the hose away from her.

"I don't think they need to grow anymore," the older woman notes, nodding to where Joel and Tommy stand, completely drenched in water, varying levels of  _what-the-fuck_ on their faces. "The trees, on the other hand…" She shoots a significant glance at the poor saplings Ellie was supposed to be watering, their tiny branches drooping a little in the force of the summer heat.

Ellie apologizes again, stifling a laugh as Tommy shakes himself out like a dog and catches all of them in the spray.

"You did us a favor," he assures her. "Too damn hot to be wanderin' around without a good soak." If Joel's expression is anything to go by, he doesn't agree at all. "'Sides, I could do with another growth spurt. I'd finally be taller than Joel."

There can't be more than an inch or two between them, but Joel makes a big show of narrowing his eyes and looking down at Tommy like he's not convinced. "Gonna need a hell of a lot more water, then."

"Screw you! Ain't my fault. I probably didn't get enough sunlight, with you snatchin' all of it before it could get to me."

"'Cause that's exactly how it works," Joel mutters.

Tommy puts on a wounded expression. "Maria still likes me, shortstack or not. Right, baby?"

"I live in constant fear of the wind blowing you away," Maria deadpans. "But I love you anyway."

Tommy grins, and Ellie feels a little bad for getting him caught in the crossfire, but the expression on Joel's face is completely worth it. He runs his fingers through his hair to test the damage. The end result in a crown of spikes going every which way that makes him look like he's been electrocuted.

"Looking good, old man," Ellie snickers, even as her fingers itch a little to pat his hair back into place. The way he's looking at her now, though, she's not sure if those fingers would still be attached to her hand when she was done.

Maria takes one look at him and coughs, focusing on something located conveniently on the horizon, her mouth twitching up. Tommy makes a wounded noise like he very much wants to laugh but wants to stay living just a little bit more, and laughing at his big brother would be counterproductive to that wish.

" _Ellie_ ," Joel says, and the fact that her own name has become a familiar warning between them almost make her smile. Only almost, because Joel's got that look in his eyes like he's not sure whether to laugh or wring her neck.

He does neither.

Joel shrugs, wringing out the bottom of his shirt and sighing that long-suffering sigh he saves for when she's  _really_ being a brat. "I'm callin' it a day," he tells Tommy.

Tommy gawks at him. "Says who?"

"Says  _me_ , for dealin' with  _that_." He gestures to Ellie's entire self. She sticks her tongue out and replies with a gesture of her own. For a moment she thinks he might just flip her off too, but then his back is to her and he's walking away.

She considers apologizing for all of half a second before she's reaching for the hose. It's a bad idea, probably the worst idea she's ever had, but the look on his face was so fucking  _priceless_. Maria shoots her a chiding look, but lets the hose go without comment.

"Joel, wait!" she calls out.  _He should really know me better by now,_ she thinks. But he stops dead in his tracks and turns around, only to be hit in the face with a burst of water. For a moment he stares at her with wide-eyed betrayal, and it's such a pitiful expression that she almost feels bad. "I thought you could use some cooling off?" she offers sheepishly, barely stifling a giggle.

Joel closes his eyes and rubs the bridge of his nose tiredly. "Ellie," he says, and then stops.

She expects  _something,_  some form of retaliation. Instead, he calmly walks back towards them, sidestepping Tommy and determinedly ignoring his little brother's cackling. "My god, your  _face_ ," Tommy wheezes. "Your fuckin'  _face_ , Joel."

"You've got weeds to pull, don't you?" Joel says, nodding to the patch at Tommy's feet. "Maybe make yourself useful, instead of clownin' around."

"Oh, no you don't. We ain't pretendin' that never happened. That was  _gold_." Tommy keeps up his teasing for a few moments, but Joel ignores him and goes to fetch one of the empty buckets stacked up in the shade. Ellie stares at him as he sets it down in front of her, trying and failing to read his expression.

"Plants won't water themselves," he reminds her, and she fills the bucket without another word, wondering why he suddenly decided to help. There's a tiny, irrational bite of fear in her stomach that she's actually pissed him off this time, and she'd actually rather that he yell at her. But he doesn't, just watches her with that unreadable look, and she ducks her head to escape it, trying to concentrate on the saplings by her feet. She hears Joel snort, feels the back of her neck prickle as she gets the sense of something above her, and then…

She feels the water before anything else, but the temperature hits her a second later and she shrieks at the cold. "What the  _fuck_!"

She hears Joel laughing his ass off, and wipes the water from her eyes furiously to glare up at him. He claps a hand over his mouth to muffle the sound. It doesn't work, and deep down she's proud as hell to have made him that happy -he's got the best laughing face and she loves it to pieces, not that he'll ever know that- even as she wants to sock him for this.

She eyes the bucket resting beside him with betrayal. "Laugh it up, asshole. You just  _wait_."

He schools his expression back to something near serious. "I am truly, deeply frightened," he assures her, and  _god_ , he's so fucking lucky she's so attached to his stupid face.

Not that she's above messing it up a little.

The bone-dry ground soaked up most of the water as it came off her, and already it's a shade too dry to be proper mud, but it'll do. She ducks down to grab a handful and before Joel can ask what the hell she's doing, he's got a clod of dirt across half his face and a good chunk of hair.

Tommy guffaws. "Here we go."

"Ten bucks on the kid," Maria mutters, not even bothering to hide her amusement now.

"Reckon I should've seen that comin'," Joel says, strangely calm as he wipes the worst of the dirt off.

She grins. "Yup." She's so damn pleased with herself that it takes a moment to catch on to the spark lit up in his eyes.  _Oh, no._ "Fuck-" She doesn't get a chance to finish, because he's already moving. She takes off running just a second before he lunges for her.

"Too slow, old man!" she calls over her shoulder, because maybe she has a little bit of a death wish.

He doesn't follow, just watches her with his arms crossed and a stony expression that does nothing to fool her. She stops, spinning on her heels and grinning at him expectantly because what's the point if he's not  _chasing_.

"You're gonna have to try harder than that!" Yeah, definitely a death wish. Or maybe she likes to see the way Joel lets himself grin, kinda cocky and way too sure of himself, in the face of her challenge.

"Is that right?" Joel drawls, and Ellie gets the distinct feeling that she is so, so fucked.

Naturally, she does the most logical thing and throws her arms out in invitation. And maybe she's being a little obvious, with Tommy and Maria watching, but she can always blame it on the heat. "I'm  _waiting_."

This time, he chases.


End file.
